TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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  43

  VERY NEW AT THIS BUT LOST IN SPACE

  by stephenlettclownface in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i apologize if this post ends up in the wrong place.

  i have been a lurker here for several years.

  i thoroughly enjoy this site, have for years, and read something or another on this site many times a week.

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  TonusOH

  Hi SLCF, and welcome.

  I wouldn't say that the feeling of brotherhood was fake, but it was conditional. It is built on a false premise. The idea is that extreme isolation and distancing is the only way to deal with those who are not in 'good standing.' The organization demands that its members act in ways totally anathema to the way they are used to treating each other, but also to go right back to being brothers and friends if a person's status reverts to 'good standing.' This is stressful, especially when we've been conditioned to be loving and brotherly and generous with one another.

  And this conditioning can last a very long time. Glad to see you've come to terms with it and have freed yourself.
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  7

  Materialistic and Soon

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was reading a bart ehrman book, .

  armageddon: what the bible really says about the end.

  no, i won't bore you with complicated various theories i was reading.

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  TonusOH

  It's easy for us to wrap our mind around physical rewards, since they can be quantified without much effort. Even Jesus spoke of dwellings being prepared in heaven and building up spiritual treasures for oneself. There wouldn't be money or houses in heaven (at least not in the traditional sense), but it was an effective frame of reference. So I'm not suprised that religious groups would use commonly-understood concepts to help believers idealize the spiritual.

  The stuff about living in nice places left behind by the dead always struck me as quite gruesome. But we grew up in a poor and downtrodden area, and the homes weren't ostentatious or in good shape. The thought of it all being crushed and buried would have been more to our liking. I guess that's just about as creepy.
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  40

  1963 Resolution Condemning the United Nations

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  quote from that world wide resolution: .

  that, in order to prevent the destruction of the nations by their own means in war, the nations further refused the surrender of their sovereignty to god’s messianic kingdom by setting up a society of nations, which, since 1945, has taken the form and the name of the united nations, with international headquarters at new york city.

  this international organization stands for world sovereignty by political men.

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  TonusOH

  I was thinking about the way the mind can compartmentalize stuff to keep contradictory things from creating dissonance. But I didn't even hear about the UN stuff until years after I was out. It's the information bubble that the organization creates that keeps the rank and file in line. If someone had told me that the WTS had registered as an NGO, I would have surely called them a liar. And if I had learned the truth, I would have deflected with "they just want to use the library" and "they still criticize the UN." And if someone had pointed me to the more supportive articles, I would have dismissed it as reading too much into nothing.

  That bedrock assumption that the GB was god's voice and the WTS was god's organization had to be defended at all cost. First by rejecting any information that did not come from them, and otherwise using jusitifications and rationalizations to defend against anything that did not fit the assumptions. Being free of that is great. Recognizing how it works made me never want to get stuck in that kind of trap ever again.
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  19

  Leaked Info: Watchtower Received $497 Million From One Country (Britain) In Last Six Years! [Must Watch!]

  by Golden4Altar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  leaked info:watchtower received $497 million from one country (britain) in last six years!

  [must watch!].

  this video was just released with documented proof, see this link: https://jehovahstruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=187#p187.

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  TonusOH

  Maybe the complaints came at a time when they still charged a cost for the books and magazines they printed? I suppose some people would see it as using their tax-exempt status as a religion to sell books (ie, a business) while not being taxed? In other words, that what they were doing was legal, but immoral?

  Wasn't it Rutherford who called religion "a snare and a racket"? He certainly would have known!
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  8

  Allow me to re-introduce myself

  by neworleanslady in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i haven’t been on here in years, had an old account but don’t remember the username or even the email to which it was attached.

  life, man.

  anywho, 13 years out (that feels wild), born in, fourth generation, elder’s daughter, baptized at ten, partially homeschooled (but apparently not enough lol), former convention stage performer/pioneer/foreign language congregation member, etc.

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  TonusOH

  neworleanslady: I’d share links to my writing but also am not entirely sure about being non-anonymous on here just yet.

  I can't fault you for that. Glad to hear things have worked out well, even with the JW baggage that we end up carrying after we leave.
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  14

  Jehovah's Witnesses Are A Cult . . . Pure & Simple!

  by Golden4Altar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  jehovah's witnesses are a cult .

  pure & simple!.

  the wickedness we see prevalent today among the jehovah’s witnesses can no doubt be largely attributed to the leadership of the organization, the watchtower society and it's governing body.

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  TonusOH

  Oh hell. Now I'm hungry.
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  40

  How does the Govering Body get enlightenment?

  by no-zombie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from the earliest of times of the catholic church's ecumenical councils were used to make major changes to its doctrinal direction.

  decisions were made by bishops, they were ratified by the pope ... and it was done.

  and the laity had to accepted them or not.. and while splinter catholic religions accepted most of these councils, non-trinitarian faiths which developed latter (of which jehovah's witnesses are apart) did not.

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  TonusOH

  When they realized that the math couldn't possibly work out, they threw their hands up in the air and decided to leave the matter alone. Once they stopped doing that, the number of partakers grew significantly.

  I'd almost like to see their membership grow so much that the number of partakers would climb close to 144,000, just to see how they would deal with it. I mean, that's a lot of "mentally ill" people that they would be attracting, wouldn't it?
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  14

  Video: Governing Body's Ridiculous Viewpoint of Higher Education

  by Golden4Altar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  governing body's ridiculous viewpoint of higher education.

  to see this video, please click this link: https://jehovahstruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=186#p186.

  g4a.

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  TonusOH

  They try to discourage it, but I don't think they have ever expressly forbid it.

  I've told this story before, but I knew an elder who was getting into arguments with his daughter because she wanted to go to college and he would not hear of it. He was at Bethel one day and asked Albert Schroeder (GB member) what to do, and Shroeder asked him "has she ever given you any problems before?" The elder said that no, she had not. Schroeder replied, "then why start a problem with her now?"

  In other words, he got the okay from a governing body member to let his daughter go to college. I have no doubt that, during this time, they must have mentioned the "risk" of going to college a couple of times, if not more.
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  3056

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  TonusOH

  He says that the JWs messed him up because they don't let you do all of these sex-related things. Then he admits that he did a lot of them anyway. In the livestream, he claims that he "skirted as close to the line" as he could without being DF'ed. If we keep in mind that (1)his dad apparently was protecting him and (2)he's a filthy liar who constantly minimizes his own behavior, then we can only imagine how much nasty stuff he got away with.

  When he is describing how Dijana found the sexts on his phone, he admitted that it wasn't the first time. This language is specific-- it allows him to imply that it 'only' happened twice, but this could have been the third, fourth, or tenth time it happened. And this led to actual consequences only because she put her foot down and would not agree to sweep it under the rug, as she would have done the previous time(s).

  I think this is one reason why he focuses on the accusations regarding a young teenager. That accusation is difficult --perhaps even impossible at this point-- to prove (this is not to minimize how horrible the crime would be, or that people should stop talking about it). But the stuff he got away with during his time as a married man and an elder in a JW congregation? That could still get out, and there's not much he could do aside from try to lie his way past it, and we've seen what a bad liar he is.
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  19

  Leaked Info: Watchtower Received $497 Million From One Country (Britain) In Last Six Years! [Must Watch!]

  by Golden4Altar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  leaked info:watchtower received $497 million from one country (britain) in last six years!

  [must watch!].

  this video was just released with documented proof, see this link: https://jehovahstruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=187#p187.

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  TonusOH

  They are focusing on what we would otherwise call profits. The same way a corporation will. A corporation will speak of having to cut costs even when they are profitable. If profits fell from one quarter to another, they still made money and they still have money in reserve. But they want to be prepared in case profits fall again or if they experience a loss. If they wait until money is running out, it is usually too late to act.

  It is possible that the WTS has quite a lot of money and is 'profitable.' But the loss of government subsidies would hurt future income, and big payouts of hush money eat into their savings. They probably are seeing a slowdown in income and an increase in expenses, and have decided to act before things are dire. This might be one of the reasons for the recent changes, and I am wondering how many more of them they will implement if they think it will improve the flow of income.